Ja- itive, promotiog new courses of government action; other activity is negative, bor's opposilion 10 measures designed to increase efficiency, and other umon seeking lo block changes in public policy. Actually, much of interest group activity in these processes conststs not Sorne of this promotion was attributed to un ion ideology, as reflectedby,the re,: of positive prnmnlion, but ralher of negative blocking.

Thus regulated truckers in combination with wd Jarger at the bargaining ta ble. Hints of in- wage increases to their membership. The opposi tion of medica! As one somewhat cynical re. While it is nol possible toes- package. As one of m y respon- the recent and vigorous activity of environmentalists and local antihighway ac- dents described the way subjects rise through his depanment to thc secrctary's tivists.

There is often a hcavy bud- agenda beca use of interest gmup activity. As one respondeD! Aside from thern, failing, many cities took over 1he responsibility, resultmg 10 substanllal operat- there isn't any force in the public thal really pushes for it.

Finally, health leg- tention roros to nationalizing tbe Medicai:l program, one promment constdera- islation is often aimed at particular disorders, partly because of the lobbies for tion is the budgetary relief such a move would provide to thc states. For one thing, issues gen- eraJly emerge toa status of serio us governmental consideration from a complex Obviously, interest group activity is varied.

Some of tt IS pos- discussed, attention to intermodal terminals may have been sti. Wby would you want to take them on? Dumb, dumb, dumb. The in itial advantage o. Jf the group does so, incomes and livelihoods of large num- pcrf. In part, this pattern results from thc quences. The rail unions are in an even more critica!

By contrast, respondents the govemmental agenda. Part of a group's stock in trade in affecting all phases patd scant nttent10n to buses. As one rather colorfully stated it, ''Buses suck hind tit the preferences of its members. No opinion leader rides a bus, its effectiveness is seriously impaired.

Thus an early signa! Busing is a grubby business, and grubby people ride lation was on the way was the crack in the united front of opposition among the thc buses. The American Medica! The vaunted highway lobby, powerful as it was and they face oppositioo from their own raoks. Large corporatioos, for instance. Alarmed by the staggering financia! Man y of my respondents powcr ch te. These argu- Afrer interest gr? One finds their traces tled for the equal access they regarded as something akin ro a civil right.

Chupler 8. Ideas from academic litemture are reguhlrly dis- out of business. Again and c ials to move with the issue. But lhc momentum of the academic litcrature in again, congressional committees and administrative agencies cal! The literature argucs that because of thc widcspread use of open- su lt ing studies were done very competently and others were the shoddy work of ended insurance a nd bccause thc doctor-patient encounter is fundamentally dif- the so-called "beltway bandits" who hustled federal research contracts.

Sorne fcrent from a classic producer-consumer encountcr, medica! Many prominent Washington selves directly responsible for the costs. And doc tors, not patients, determine lawyers, for instance, have included goverruneJJt service in their careers.

As one observer said, "Doctors ;ent their interests. But all know pot1ant in only 15 percent. They werc rated as being very importan!

There are no maj ar d ifferences in these figures between health and transportation, or from one year to another. These indicators, then, place these people in qu ite an 1mportant pos ition, though not in the top rank occupied by interest gro ups, the Types of Activity ad ministration, and mcmbers of Congress.

The impacts of academics, researchers, and consultants vary in a numbcr of im- Examplcs o f thcir importance are not hard to uncover. Possibly tbe most dra- porram ways. For one, academics mtght well affect the allernatives more than matic change in thc field of transportation in the s was the movement to- governmental agendas.

A close examination of thc interviews and thc c ase ward economic deregulation in various modes- air, truck, and ra il. Then politician s turn to that com mun ity ceded by and depe nded on a lengthy period in which a substantial scholarly lil- for proposals thal would be relevan!

The high and escalating cost of med ica! It really was a case of economic theory's direct impact on a policy instance, was the major preoccupation of Washington policy makers during the agenda. As one respondent summarized the origins: period of this study. While acadcm ics were not rcsponsible for the pro minence of that problem on the agenda, they were prominent among the people to whom In the s and thc Js lhe intellectual foundation was luid in academia, and po liticians turned for ideas on how 10 cope with it.

Even transportation dcregu- by now it has moved into the politicul spherc. Because of the tcmper of the times, politicians found it ex- Congress, and that work is jusi now coming to legislative fruition. Often, acudemic work is discussed as if it affects a ecn- mists as Hendrik Houthakker and Pau l MacA voy, who served at the Council of cral clirnate of ideas which would, in tum, affect policy makers' thinking in the long Economic Advisers and pushed hard for deregulation.

The power of the acade- mic literature dramatica lly affected the Civil Aeronautics Board. The CA B 's llFor nn exccllcnt discus. They're son of ta lking themselves ond Paul J. Even if some short-term, immediate impact of academic work is not dis- This discussion of the importance of academics and researchers , however, cernible, its long-term impact might be considerable. One researcher described such should not be allowed to obscure the instances in which their thinking does not a process of communication, diffusion, and discussion: carry the day.

In other quarters, the value of the work is accepted, Wriling books gets your ideas into the public eye. Then I get asked to tcstify. Thc case of catastrophic health insurance illustrates these currents tive brancb.

I go to conferences. In addition to writing, I get it out ora Uy beca use nicely. Nearly every health policy analyst with whorn 1 talked agreed that cata- many people don't have time toread. In academia, there 's a network of people, the best re- strophic insurance was exactly the wrong plan to enact, reasoning that cata- searchers, the people that you float things by.

In government it's certain posi- strophic health insurance would creare an incentive for providers to furnish the tions-head staffers on the major committees, planning and evaluation people in highest-cost medica! Yet in , fully 92 percent of my health respondents treated tbe subject of catastrophic in- While the long-term ciimate of ideas is not the so le province of academics, re- surance as prominent on the governmental agenda, a dramatic jump from 33 searcbers cootribute importantly to its development.

Wben 1 asked why, in view of this near-u nani- As for the short run, policy makers in government listen to academics most mous opinion of the best analysts, one responden! For the researcher who wants to have they might be take second place. As one research administrator put it, "We sniffed l've never gotten very carried away with bis plan or her plan and the details of around, and found out what people wanted us to do.

Everybody can cost out their plan, draw up its sounds very reactive," the administrator replied, "That's exactly correct, and detailed provisions, make the thing a nice integrated whole, and really do a it's entirely intentional. We are in the social policy research business. We are beautiful job of devising their plans.

But when you gel right down to it, you get trying to be reasonably responsive to the social issues in the health area. Thus sorne researchers and academics build "inner-outer" careers in which they travel between academia and government, taking leaves of ab- sence frorn their universitics or research organizations to occupy responsible THEMEDIA positions in government.

Academic work on deregulation in transportation found its way into government in this fashion, partly through the service of Media are often portrayed as powerful agenda setters. Mass media clearly do prominent economists in such places as the Council of Economic Advisers, the affect the public opinion agenda.

As other scholars have discovered, the mass Council on Wage and Price Stability, and the Department of Transportation, public's attention to govemmental issues tracks rather closely on media cover- and partly through the more gradual infusion of less well-known, younger peo- age of those issues.

One professor among rny respondents portant problem" facing the country. The same potential for media importance referred to acadernic work proceeding in two waves. First, there was ordinary research by acadernics- books, scholarly articles, conference papers, and the 14See Arthur H.

Miller, Edie N. Then there was a set of acadernics that he called the "political branch, that papcrs on Public Confidence,'' American Political Science Reviell' 73 Match : ; Erbring, G. As 1 argued in Congressmen' s and then turn to the next s tory, diluting its impact. So partly bccausc members follow mass media Iike other people, and partly be- the media have to keep moving along lo something new. They don' t have the cause media affect their constiruents.

Said one, "The Dcspite good reasons for bclieving that media should have a substantial im- press has the world 's shortest attention span. We move from one crisis to the next. Mass media were discussed as being importan! As o ne prominent pcrcent. Bither problcms m y responden! The pic turc media are largely responsive to the issues that are being aired, and media don't with the case stud ics is no better.

Media are somewhat importan! There are no differences between bealth and newsworthy or dramatic story actually diminishes their impac t on governmcn- transportation in either interviews or cases.

One can find examples of media tal poi icy agendas beca use such stories tend to come toward th e end of a pol- imporumcc-thc Washington Post ran a continuing series on the battle over icy-making process, rather than at tbe beginning.

Por ins tance, thc media may waterway uscr chargcs that probably added sorne significan! In either case, the agenda was set much earlier and by processes tional coverage, with the policy communi ty riding serenely above the media not much affected by the media. Active pol icy makers often express their disdain for media sensational- Even though media have much Iess effect on governmental policy agendas ism.

Onc hcalth responden! First, media actas a communicator within a policy to do with the economi c or pol itical structure of medica[ care were left rela- community. He complained, " Deformed gnomes make quite an impression dealing with similar problems day in and day out, somet imos communicate in fron t of the television cameras.

They are aU busy people and subject of saccharin was totally ignored by 86 percent of my health respondents their paths may not cross frequently in the normal course of cvents, but they do in , the high point of its media auention during the four years; it was dis- al! So one way to bring an idea to the attention of someone cussed as a somewhat important subject in only 6 percent of the intervicws in else, even someone who is a fellow specialist, is to be covered in the pages of that year.

Simihtrly, the issue of Medicare and Medicaid fraud and abuse was the major papers. A high-level bureaucrat told me, for instanee, that a concem treated as a somewhat important problem by only 15 percent of my respondents of theirs had not made it to the White House level until it appeared in the in , its high point of media exposure, and completely ignored by 76 per- Washington Posr, whereupon the presiden!

Tbis use of the media even occurs within ooc institution. One some of the health committee and agency time. Thus the subjects were "on the analyst in a staff agency of Congress said: agenda" in sorne sense, 16 but they were simply not regarded as truly significan!

They were more like shor1-term annoyances, evento active participants, than subjects of major importance. New York:. Harpcr and Row, 1 , " Walker's data on safcty lcgislalion shows exactly this panern. Sce Watker, "Sening tite Agenda.

Sce Wnlker. The big problem on the Hill is his district were beginning to ask what he in tended to do abou t the problem. They have no way of dealing with it. So they We will return to the impact of public op inion on govcrnment policy agendas don '1, mostly. We can write reports and papers and they don 't read it.

But if the later in this chaprer. Times or Post picks up our report and does a story oo it, they do read that, and it Finally, the importance of the media may vary from one type of participan!

Insiders, those who already are key governrnent decision makers or who have easy access to those decision makers, might havc less nced for media Sorne of this communication within policy communities tak:es place through coverage than outsiders, those who have less access and hencc need to go to media that are more specialized than the daity newspapers.

Your only hope is lo go public. Bul an insider portrayed a very differenl situation, as well as summarizi ng the Such specialized publications do not figure very promiuently in the interviews point well: or case studies. They were prominenr in only lO percent of the interviews, and were imporlant in only 2 of the 23 case studies. Nevertheless, they probably a re Mass media coverage is not critical. It is one of your vehicles. Here, in a posi- mo re imporlan t as comm uni cati ng dev ices than these data indicate.

We have allernati ves of leverage on A sccond way media affects the agenda is by magnifying movements that lhe system, and we don 't have to use lhe media very mueh. The media will fol- have already started elsewhcre, as opposed to originating those movements.

So I don' t tltink the media adds movemeni that began in some segment of the society, and the y accelerale its rnuch. As one journalist put it, "Media can help levers I hnve, tbe media would be very importnnt lo me, and 1 would use it as shape an issue and help s tructure it, but they can't create an issue.

Sometimes aclive partic- ipants in a burcaucratic process want to enlarge a conflict beyond the co nfines of usual channels. Because the smell of dram atic conflicr is in the ai r, media are only too glad to ob lige. To the e xtent that expansion of a conflicl is a central feature of Because they produce the officials who make many irnportan t decisions in gov- agenda setting, then media play a parl21 ernment, elcctions may affecr policy agendas.

Also, peop le in and around gov- Third, to the extcnt thar public opinion affects some of the participaots, me- ernment may interpret election resul ts as mandares for onc or another policy di- dia might ha ve an indirect effect. Tf the media affect public opinion agendas, as rection, or at least as hints of the e ectorate's preferences. Tbe election of there is reason to think they do,22 then the attention of such participants as Ronald Reagan and thc shi. Potiticians also make many promises during campaigns, and parries tion ro Medicaid fraud and abuse than he might have in because tl1e issue take positions in platforms.

These commitments could conceivably form an agenda for them once in office. They are neither among the least importan! Making an l.

When we combine mentions of ican Politics Boston: Allyn and Bacon, , pp. Seo Edle N. Heath, , p. See also Michnel Lipsky. But Not just Looking In Eloctions-Relatcd Participants 63 Despite this middle-rank frequency of discussion in interviews, elections Jand; and articles on the latest cure or the latest disease are prominently dis- stiU have sorne powerful indirect effects on governmental policy agendas. Wc played in even the smallest-circulation newspapers. A c ians while in office.

As they look forward to the next e lecti on, they are acutely cbange of administration would change agendas, alternatives, and approaches aware that they must maintain their supporting coalitio n as intact as possi blc.

The administration would advocate sorne pro- Campaign prornises do not affect the agenda si mply because they wcre made.

The proponents of Rather, they are imponant because sorne sign ifican! The only rivals for the administra- accusing him of welshing and threatening desertion in the next campai gn if he tion as innuences on agenda setting were members of Con,gress , again elected does not deliver. In the end, the mass public's awareness of thc campaign is- oflicials.

As a result, advocates of pro- promises ha ve been kept. Thus elections take on istration is the Jeading cxample. In Chapter 1, we recounted the story of great importan ce, not because there is any kind of mandate from th e public to Cart. The threat of a Kennedy-labor challcngcl. One part of e lections-campaigns and campaign promises-might affect gov- Contrast this story to the proposals for an integrated transportlltion tru st ernmenta l policy agendas.

As a part of attracting groups and individuals during fund. Carter did propose actions during the campaig n tbat would lcad in that lieve in their s tated policy goals and want to see them advanced.

But there is direction, but a campaign promise to that effect was never discusscd in my in- also at lcast an impUcit exchange involved- support for the candidate in return terviews. When the idea was mentioned, it was referred to as Transportation for action on the promises. Politicians may feel constrained to deliver on their Secretary Brock Adams's idea, but not in the context of a campaign pledge.

One reason for the contras! Thcy are discussed as importan! But the impact of intcrests and tbe mass transit people, would be against it. Fully 44 percent of the health in - into public policy.

For a campaign promise to gain policy agenda n atus, it must terviews conta. Our library is the biggest of these that have literally hundreds of thousands of different products represented. I did not think that this would work, my best friend showed me this website, and it does! I get my most wanted eBook. My friends are so mad that they do not know how I have all the high quality ebook which they do not!

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